Englands Next Golden Generation

Stack

Actually Englands biggest problem is the fans and media blaming the managers, its a great example of just how blind the English football community is to the ugly truth.

Varun_Utd

Yep. Currently, they dont even have the individuals to win the trophy.

Lance Uppercut

Agreed. At some point it should dawn that collectively, the players aren't good enough.

The other possible explanation is that manager after manager after manager isn't good enough. That seems unlikely.

Stack

Its closing in on 50 years since England last won the world cup, 50 years of it being the managers fault also seems unlikely to me.

Im going to repeat this I know but I want to see England win a world cup.

ArmchairCritic

Mentality is not there at all, I really don't think this current squad deep down wants to play for each other. They need to start blooding the youngsters and instilling a team spirit of sorts. The FA needs back the fuck up to, let the manager decide what to do.

antohan

Not sure about Golden Eras but Robson's England was a class apart from the England of the 00s, it's not even a fair contest.

Smores

Right now we're certainly no where near the top teams in terms of quality but that obviously doesn't mean we aren't capable of picking up the trophy. For me the England team of the past has always been littered with brilliant players but we've never found a system/selection of players that's anywhere near balanced or suitable.

Doesn't help that we never properly utilised the best english midfielder of his generation.

Walrus

As I said, IF (and its a big if) that young team were playing and performing well, and gelling together at a team, then they could do fantastically well. I have no shame in admitting that I think the likes of Welbeck, Cleverley, Wilshere, AOC, Hart and Smalling to name but a few, are capable of world class performances on their days. I refer you to Germany at the World Cup, if you want an example.

Now that is a very different thing from saying I would expect them to reach the final and anything less is an embarrassment, but that is what they are capable of.

Sean_RedDevil

I'm really looking forward to the first friendly after the Euros because hopefully Wenger will be our new coach, the old "The New Generation" is gone* and of course the squad should be very young.

Sean's squad for the friendly vs Team X
Goalkeepers
Hart, Stockdale, Forster

Defenders
Richards, Walker, Smalling, Jones, Cahill, Caulker, Baines, Gibbs

Midfielders
Wilshere, Cleverley, Rodwell, Milner, McEachran, Davies, Walcott, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Young, A.Johnson

Strikers
Rooney, Welbeck, Sturridge, Bent

*I really hope the new coach leaves out all this players for the future: Ferdinand, Terry, Gerrard, Lampard, A.Cole, Parker, Carrick, Barry, King, Defoe, Crouch, J.Cole, Lescott, Jagielka & Hargreaves

Laphroaig

Carrick has to be in there and Cashley should too.

ricky-romeo

a few experience players should remain to help the youngsters.

an in form carrick should always feature for england, cashley is still the best LB in the country, and maybe parker and gerrard can still be part of the team, as long as they are playing well enough.

rio should retire from international football, as simple as that, better concentrates on getting fit and healthy for united now.

terry has to go, so does lampard and barry.

looking at Sean's team, yeah, england do have a very good crop of promising young players now. gibbs still has plenty to prove though if he wants to be the first choice LB for the future, so does McEachran, will be interesting to see how he does at swansea. he is not going to get games at chelsea btw.

sammsky1

certainly packed full of potential. One strategy could be to field that squad for the Olympics.

sammsky1

agreed

RedSky At Night

Capello simply doesn't have the balls to make radical changes to the English team. His love of John Terry should be enough evidence to suggest that he simply won't look to the future. Why we appointed him I'll never know, we need a manager who will give youngsters a chance and throw aside all the senior players.

There's alot of young players coming through, but they need time to settle and play with one another on the big stage. Now's the time to bed them in ready for 2014.

B19

To be fair, he is England manager. His job is to try and win the next tournament, not 'look to the future'.

Moriarty

I think it should be a bit of both.

Burrow

With the pressure that the England-manager is under at all times, I can see how it's hard to think about the future when they are expected to perform in every game they play. If the press didnt put their manager under pressure as soon as they are hired, but rather let him lay low and do his job then we'll probably see a manager with one eye on the future.

Varun_Utd

Not when he knows he's almost certain to get the axe after the euros.

pete_8

Should go with youth now.
Defenders like Terry and Cole will get badly exposed

Gerrard is not all that anymore
Lampard either
Need some experience but youth is deffo the way.
Strikers will be pretty young anyways.

Cina

England will benefit greatly from not having Gerrard and Lampard around and therefore the manager trying to put them both in the team.

Varun_Utd

you cannot expect capello to do that when he knows he's going to go after the euros. If you want a long term plan, the managerial appointment has to be likewise. cannot expect capello to give 2 fucks about england's future which he quite clearly isnt going to be a part of.

BaldwinLegend

Did Greece 'have the team' in 2004?

Who are these players who are overhyped right now out of interest? I always read this but never encounter it in the papers I read.

BaldwinLegend

Capello's already picked Wilshere, Smalling, Jones, Hart, Welbeck, Sturridge, Rodwell, Walker etc... I think he'll give the Ox a go before the summer too.

I'm not really sure who else he could pick to show he's interested in integrating youth into the team.

@pete8: which young player do you propose to play when you've dropped Ashley Cole?

pete_8

Would be a nice surprise: Needs a mixture really.. Injuries and form will decide I guess: But ultimately yes he will play safe

Varun_Utd

How many of those do you think he'l actually give a start to in the Euros? Its all well and good giving them games in friendlies but am absolutely shure he'l go for the tried and tested "experienced" heads when it comes to the actual tournament.

Yep, he will.

Cling Bak

His contract is up after the tournament, so why would he?

'Looking to the future' is the new 'golden generation' obsession.

CnutOfAllCnuts

-------------Hart
Jones - Smalling - Cahill - Cole
Johnson-Parker-Carrick-Young
------Rooney-Sturridge

Swap Wilshere for Parker or Carrick if he comes back in form.

Johnson and Richards could replace Jones.

Terry, Rio, Lescott could replace Cahill.

Lennon, Walcott, Gerrard, Welbeck, Cleverley, Milner etc as subs.

Cling Bak

Richards has been playing too well not to play at RB.

Is that Adam Johnson on the right??? Not sure what the fuss is with him.

BaldwinLegend

Where's Oxlade-Chamberlain been playing for Arsenal? On the left?

Varun_Utd

Yes.

Walrus

The difference I think between the current crop of players and the previous generation (Beckham, Lampard, Gerrard etc) is that the players coming through at the moment seem truly like exceptional team players, capable of moments of individual brilliance but capable of playing as part of a unit.

Go back 5 years and it was very much a case of having a lot of individually fantastic players, but ones who usually had a team built around them, had them as the star players whose only role was to pop up once a game with a moment of genius or score a wondergoal.

When I look at Wilshere, Cleverley, AOC, Welbeck, Rooney etc, I see players who are (or have the potential to be) world class, but in the sheer style of play, seem to seem much more like a coherent team of players as opposed to a mish mash of stars all bundled onto a football pitch.
Cleverley as an example - we saw his beautiful goal in the USA in preseason, but some of his best moments are when he links up with our other players with some fantastic first touch passing, playing through the opposition in tight spaces, and simply keeps the team ticking over. Rather than doing it all himself, it is that he performs so well as a team player that he has quickly become so highly rated since appearing in the first team.

I really do think that is the quality that has been missing from previous England teams, and the one thing that may propel them from being another set of underperformers to be an actual world class team capable of competing at the top level.

Cheesy

What I will say in praise of this crop of England youngsters is that there are a lot more technically gifted players when you look at the most talented ones. Players like Cleverley and Wilshere are both technically gifted, and can play football as opposed to being battering rams who wear their heart on their sleeve and have no ability.

It's something that they seem to be doing throughout the whole team, even in the defence. Jones has more ability on the ball than Ferdinand and Terry do in their toenails, while Cahill and Smalling aren't too shabby either.

Up front, you've got Sturridge who's very good on the ball, while Welbeck isn't too bad in that sense either.

I still don't think that this England side is going to be good enough to win a major tournament, however it certainly is moving in the right direction.

TheHorse'sMouth

Feed the Ox and he will score

adexkola

Cheesy

Perhaps it's a bit harsh on Ferdinand who isn't too bad on the ball, however Terry's absolutely awful on it, and always has been.

Walrus

Sorry for the semi-bump again, but as we come into the Holland match with Pearce naming a generally young squad, I thought it was appropriate.


With players dropping out like flies (as per usual) it gives even more of an impetus for Pearce to put some faith in the youngsters. I said in the other thread but if I were Engand boss I would quite simply not name any players in my squad who I wouldnt expect to be playing in the 2014 World Cup. That means some like Ferdinand, Lampard who will be too old, and others like Bent, Crouch, Downing to name but a few who will hopefully have been overtaken in the pecking order by our young players by then.

We have some great players coming through in almost every position. Left back is a possible problem area, but other than that we are more or less covered.

Hart

Richards
Smalling
Jones
Walker

Cleverley
Wilshere
Rodwell

Sturridge
Rooney
Welbeck

Thats not necessarily a lineup, more just a typical selection of the players we have at our disposal. Add some of the others to the mix;

Gibbs, Cahill, Henderson, AOC, Walcott, A. Johnson, Carroll.

And pepper it with more experienced internationals, we have the basis of a great squad there for the next 3 world cups or so.

kouroux

Defensively, Greece had better players (and warriors) than the current England team.Anyway, it was one off, a miracle you won't see happening for a very long time.
The overrated players are basically are all the promising young players (Welbeck,Cleverley,A.Johnson,Wilshere,AOC).Recogni zing a good talent, I have no problem with but what have they proved so far ? Not much.
Do England have the talented tacticians to get them far in a tournament ? I don't think so.

Germany had a young team but their players were still more experienced (at clubs and internationally) than the few players you mentioned.Germany had a good coach too unlike England.

Roy

I don't know if England are good enough to win a tournament or if the last generation was a golden generation or not, but all I know is that England have been playing such dull football. Even when England have won games, the football has just been so, so boring. When was the last time England played entertaining football? 96 maybe?

Zen86

I'm beginning to regain a bit of respect for the England team again, new the arrogant bastard generation seems to be coming to an end.

Randall Flagg

England played good football in 96? For one game perhaps